Wretched blossom!

No signal last night, so here's what should have been posted yesterday.

As predicted, the boat was covered in pink blossom this morning (yesterday). It had rained in the night, so it had all stuck. Grr! There were also lots of catkin-type things, looking like hairy caterpillars, which had come from the same trees. These had become soggy in the wet. We walked in the warm sunshine to Stoke-on-Trent’s city centre, found Poundland, bought the rechargeable batteries, (and some birthday cards), and returned to the boat. We set off straight away, at 10:10, and headed for Harecaste Tunnel. On the way we passed working potteries, pleasing to see, and a sunken plastic boat, not so pleasing.

We timed our arrival at the tunnel perfectly: only five minutes’ wait, and we were ushered in. We were the last in a three-boat convoy. When we got to Kidsgrove we debated briefly whether to go to Tesco, but decided to press on.

Now the locks started. I love these locks: paired (mostly) narrow locks, many of them pleasingly deep. There was plenty of traffic in both directions, which meant often that locks were left ready for us to go straight in.

We tied up at Hassal Green, as per the plan, and walked in to the village to post a card. Returning from the post box we noted with concern that the Romping Donkey was boarded up! And that’s where we’d planned on eating! Hmm. Back to the boat to reconsider. (Thanks for the warning, Neil, but I read it too late!)

We decided to carry on to within walking distance of Wheelock, so we pulled the pins and did a few more locks. We stopped finally just before the disused railway bridge 151A, a couple of locks before Wheelock. Then Jan had a shower and I collected some kindling, before we walked down to see what eateries there were. The first one we came to was the rather pricey Mediterranean restaurant – looked good, but I wanted to see what else was on offer. The Cheshire Cheese had stopped doing food; the Commercial didn't do it; the Nag's Head should have stopped serving at 8pm, but would accommodate us. So we stayed there, and had braised steak (Jan) and liver and onions (me). It was perfectly edible, and a lot cheaper than the restaurant (name to be added later). The beer was good, too.

Today we carry on to Middlewich where my brother and some of his family will join us to take over the cruise to Tattenhall. We'll stay on until Saturday. Before they join, we'll have to clean the boat, pump out and diesel up. Better get going!